Human Security and Sovereignty: Polar Opposites or Simply Nodes in a Network?

Abstract

What are the implications from the emergence of the concept of human security to states’ sovereignty? Does the universal protection of human rights necessarily imply violation or weakening of states’ sovereign power in international relations? This paper aims at investigating the main claims about the interplay between an expanding concept of human security and the traditional principle of state sovereignty. Methodologically, it incorporates a historic analysis about the evolution of the notion of human security vis-a-vis the principle of state international sovereignty through the lens of path dependence, and the use of cognitive modeling as a way to model the parallel evolution of and mutual interplay between these two crucial concepts. Contrary to commonly held perspectives ultimately arguing that the strengthening of one of these two concepts necessarily implies the weakening of the other, the emerging picture is one of complexity. Rather than representing polar opposites within a simple network structure, more complex modes of interactions between sovereignty and human rights have led to the emergence of a new network structure, characterized by dynamic equilibrium.